Update 1.6/Part 2: PvP and Systems
PREVIEW: Player versus Player *The Arena PvP preview begins with this patch! We are releasing Jetball as our preview gametype. The preview period will be used to gather metrics and feedback regarding the PvP experience and PvP battleframe balance. *For the duration of the PvP Preview, players may experience unbalanced matches in favor of getting everyone into matches as quickly as possible. Jetball *With the release of this update we are reintroducing the Jetball PvP game mode. The goal in Jetball is to outscore the opposing team by the end of a ten minute match. Players who are not currently carrying the ball will need to attack and defend strategically against the enemy team to gain the upper hand. *Upon entering a jetball match, players will be sorted into two teams and placed into spawn rooms. While in the spawn room players will be able to interact with a battleframe terminal and pick their desired battleframe for the match, selecting any battleframe that they currently own for PvE. Players are not locked into this decision and can change battleframes at any point during the match while at this terminal. Battleframes used in PvP will use regulation gear to keep player equipment equal. *To score points players will have to obtain the Jetball from the middle of the arena (or by killing someone carrying the jetball, then picking it up) and carry it to the enemy base. Once in the enemy base, players must either carry or throw the ball through a large rotating ring. Depending on how the ball is sent through the goal, players will obtain points as listed below. **1 Point - Carry the jetball through the goal. **2 Points – Throw the jetball through the goal from more than 10m away. (This is currently not marked clearly) **4 Points – In an alcove to the side of the room a circular mark will appear on the ground. If a player throws the jetball through the goal from this point they will score 4 points! **After scoring a goal, the team that scored must leave the enemy’s goal room quickly or the automated defense systems will come online (Leave your camping supplies at home, folks!). *Special Carrier Rules: **It is important to note that the player who is currently carrying the jetball will be unable to use abilities or attack. If the player does use abilities they will immediately drop the jetball on the ground. Although the carrier can pick the ball back up if they wish. **To throw the jetball, the carrier will use their default primary fire button. This can be charged up for a stronger throw. Alt-Fire: Lock on to another player to pass the ball to them (Homing). *How to enter Jetball **To queue for a Jetball match, players will need to open the activities page (Default key: K), select PvP and enter the queue. Players are able to queue with pre-formed groups if they wish. PvP COMBAT *Battleframes will have standardized stats as well as weapon and ability kits when used in PvP. Please read below to find out what abilities each frame will have equipped when entering PvP. Assault Accord Assault *Primary – Plasma Cannon *Secondary – Burst Rifle *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Afterburner **Meteor Strike **Overcharge **Ultimate: Shockwave Firecat *Primary – Phason Thrower *Secondary – Burst Rifle *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Afterburner **Thermal Wave **Fuel Cloud **Ultimate: Fuel Air Bomb Tigerclaw *Primary – Fusion Cannon *Secondary – Burst Rifle *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Afterburner **Hellfire **Pulsar **Ultimate: Supercharge Biotech *Accord Biotech *Primary – Smart Blaster *Secondary – Sub-Machine Gun *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Adrenaline Rush **Poison Ball **Healing Generator **Ultimate: Heroism Recluse *Primary – Bolt Driver *Secondary – Sub-Machine Gun *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Creeping Death **Poison Trail **Adrenaline Rush **Ultimate: Necrosis Dragonfly *Primary – Bio Rifle *Secondary – Sub-Machine Gun *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Healing Wave **Adrenaline Rush **Emergency Response **Ultimate: Healing Dome Engineer *Accord Engineer *Primary – Arc Thrower *Secondary – Assault Rifle *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Heavy Turret **Overclock **Supply Station **Ultimate: Anti-Personnel Turret Bastion *Primary – Mine Launcher *Secondary – Assault Rifle *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Multi-Turrets **Overclock **Deployable Shield **Ultimate: Fortify Electron *Primary – Shock Rail *Secondary – Assault Rifle *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Bulwark **Overclock **Boomerang Shot **Ultimate: Electrical Storm Dreadnaught *Accord Dreadnaught *Primary – Heavy Machine Gun *Secondary – Grenade Launcher *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Heavy Armor **Turret Mode **Charge **Ultimate: Absorption Bomb Mammoth *Primary – Rotary Blaster *Secondary – Grenade Launcher *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Gravity Pull **Thunderdome **Charge **Ultimate: Dreadfield Rhino *Primary – Photon Lance *Secondary – Grenade Launcher *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Penetrating Rounds **Sundering Blast **Charge **Ultimate: Mighty Charge Recon *Accord Recon *Primary – Marksman Rifle *Secondary – Shotgun *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Cryo Shot **Remote Explosive **Teleport Beacon **Ultimate: Artillery Strike Nighthawk *Primary – Sniper Rifle *Secondary – Shotgun *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Decoy **Sin Beacon **Teleport Beacon **Ultimate: Eruption Raptor *Primary – Charge Rifle *Secondary – Shotgun *Auxiliary – Energy Sword *Abilities **Smoke Screen **Assassinate **Teleport Beacon **Ultimate: Overload PvP Ranks *A player’s PvP level is denoted by a Rank which is increased by earning Rank Points through participation in Arena PvP. Ranks are account-wide and apply to all of the player’s battleframes across their owned characters. The current maximum PvP Rank is 50 (Commander). *As players rank up they will unlock access to additional secondary weapons to use in their PvP loadout. *Rewards *While participating in PvP, players are able to advance their PvE battleframes by gaining XP, giving players the option to progress their battleframe through PvP. *Players are also rewarded at the end of PvP matches with Crystite and PvE equipment. The rewards are based on the character’s current battleframe level and the amount of time they participated in the match. *Players on the winning team of an arena match receive victory rewards in addition to participation rewards. The victory rewards are a bonus percentage of the participation rewards and contain additional PvE equipment. *Players that have PvE battleframes unlocked via Elite Ranks or Red Beans on any character within the same account can use those battleframes in PvE and PvP. Progression *Upon reaching level 20, players will receive a mission which directs them to Trans-hub to a testing facility. Inside this testing facility the player will have an opportunity to test both advanced frames for their chosen archetype. After selecting the frame they wish to use and leaving the testing facility they will be able to continue onward to level 40. At level 20, players will not earn experience until they have completed the advanced Battlelab and selected their advanced battleframe. *The progression blog can be found here. *Due to the nature of changes, upon first login to the update, each player will need to decide how they would like to migrate their battleframes. View the Migration Guide here. Elite Ranks *Elite Ranks are a form of battleframe-specific character advancement available once at maximum level. Upon reaching maximum level, the experience bar will change to a different style and color to indicate that experience toward Elite Ranks is now being earned. The amount of experience required for each individual Elite Rank is static. Advancing in Elite Ranks will unlock special optional visuals such as back banners which are used to identify a player’s current Elite Ranking, bonus stat increases, battleframe perks, or even other battleframes! *Upon reaching an Elite Rank a choice will be presented with an opportunity to upgrade one statistic from a randomized list of possible upgrades. Most new upgrade levels will present the player with a choice of six upgrades, randomly selected from the basic upgrades list, with a chance of one of the upgrades being replaced with a random upgrade from the rare upgrades list. Every tenth earned Elite Rank the upgrade selection will be entirely comprised of rare upgrades! This means that even an unlucky player will have access to rare upgrades such as free battleframes! *Basic upgrade options include: Reload speed, ammo capacity, health, health regen, healing dealt, deployable health, healing received, jump height, jet energy, run speed, or jet energy regen. *Rare upgrade options include: Battleframe unlocks, perks from other battleframes, maximum perk point increases, power rating, weapon damage dealt, ability recharge rate, ability damage dealt, ultimate charge rate, or even a sum of Crystite or credits! *The Elite Ranks blog can be found here. Itemization Vehicles and Gliders *Battleframe cores have been split into five new primary equipment pieces. *Head, Torso, Legs, Arms, and Reactor *The head, torso, arm, and leg equipment will contribute to the battleframe’s total health, while the reactor will provide a large bonus to power rating. Equipment with higher rarity can also affect weapon and ability stats. *Four New Secondary Equipment slots have been added – Operating System, Medical System and two Gadget slots. *Operating System **Carries stats which will affect the user’s abilities across the board. **Example: If a player has an operating system that affects ability cooldown then all the player’s abilities will receive the cooldown reduction granted by the operating system. *Medical System **The medical system is a reusable piece of equipment that controls how strong a player’s passive health regeneration is and can also be activated with the press of a dedicated hotkey to provide a burst heal to the player. **Medical Systems can contain benefits such as reduced medical system recharge times, increased heal strength, bonus shielding or temporarily increased defenses. *Gadgets **Gadgets are pieces of equipment that create special effects when activated by the player. Some examples of gadgets are the ability to spawn NPCs to defend the player or when using a grenade auxiliary weapon there is a chance it will not go on cooldown, allowing the player to instantly throw another grenade. Each player can equip two gadgets at a time. *Auxiliary Weapon slot **Melee ***Brawling ****Brawling gear increases the strength of the player’s weapon butt attack. ***Energy Swords ****Energy swords are fast attack melee weapons which deal damage in an arc in front of the player. ***Battle Hammers ****Battle Hammers perform slow attacks that require a wind up time but deal high damage and have an area of effect. ***Grenades ****Fragmentation Grenades deal a quick burst of area of effect damage. ****Incendiary Grenades deal damage in an area and apply a damage over time effect to enemies. ****Freeze Grenades explode dealing a small amount of damage in an area and apply a slowing effect to enemies. ****Chemical Grenades cause an explosion which covers an area with an acidic pool, dealing constant damage to enemies standing in the pool. ****Tesla Grenades create an electrical field which emits bolts of lightning, causing damage to nearby enemies each second. Enemies that have recently been electrocuted will deal reduced damage for a short time. Stat and item prefix changes**Corporation Bonuses – Equipment will now have a manufacturer associated with it which will result in specific bonuses based on the manufacturer name. ***Accord – Provides an increase to weapon handling rating and reload speed. ***Omnidyne-M – Provides an increase to maximum energy. ***Astrek – Provides an increase to energy recharge rates. ***Kisuton – Provides an increase to maximum ammunition. Equipment rarities and effect upon item level.**Common (white) equipment will be equal strength to their item level. ***Uncommon (green) equipment will be equal to an item five levels above their item level. ***Rare (blue) equipment will be equal to an item ten levels above their item level. ***Epic (purple) equipment will be equal to an item fifteen levels above their item level. **The Itemization blog can be found here. *Glider pads now instantly activate when the player presses the button, rather than requiring the player to place the pad then walk onto it. *LGVs and MGVs now instantly place the players on them when activated. *LGVs and MGVs now have standardized performance levels based upon quality. *Rare vehicles will have average or above average performance, Epic vehicles will have excellent performance. *Vehicle health will now scale based upon the player’s level. *Vehicles have received a tuning and physics pass. Vehicles now have stronger turning but can fishtail if turning sharply at a high speed. Tinkering and Modules *Credit costs to remove modules from their slots have been significantly reduced. Tinkering Modules *Modules can be combined through the Tinkering interface. *Combining a module with two other modules of the same color and tier will output a module of the next higher tier. *Combining two modules of the same tier but different colors will output a dual-stat module of the same tier. *Combining the two different stat modules of the same color into a dual-stat module is not possible. Upgrading Items *Players may upgrade a weapon, ability, or core up to 9 times. *Upgrading one of these items will add a modifier to the end of the item name, which indicates the number of times that item has been upgraded. *This will display as a +x suffix on the item name. As an example a player who has upgraded their Meteor Strike ability 5 times will display as Meteor Strike +5. *Each time the item is upgraded it will receive a base stat bonus. *Weapons will receive a base damage bonus and all weapon stats rating upgrade. *Abilities will receive an upgrade to all ability ratings. *Tinkering an item automatically binds that item to you. *Items can receive a critical upgrade which will add a gold star to the item. *Gold stars add extra stats to the item, the more gold stars the item has the stronger the items statistics. *Optional ingredients can be used to increase the chance to receive a gold star when upgrading. *If a player reaches maximum rank on an item but wishes to try and receive more gold stars on their item, they can reset the item’s rank. *Resetting the rank will reduce the +x stat bonus of the item to the amount of gold stars currently on the item. *Gold stars already on the item will not be lost. *Example: Resetting a +8 item that has 3 gold stars will result in a +3 item with 3 gold stars already on it, allowing more attempts to receive gold stars. *The blog on Tinkering and Modules can be found here. *Existing equipment and modules will need to be salvaged as noted in our Migration Guide. Crafting *Crafting has been temporarily disabled until the new crafting system becomes available in a future update. Any research points, Crystite and time spent on researching is refunded to the players. *Thumping will not yield minerals until crafting is reintroduced, though pilots can thump nodes for Crystite.